How To: Root the Motorola Backflip

I. Install the Motorola Drivers

1. Download the drivers for your computer and unzip them. Then double click the program inside to install the drivers.

Motorola Drivers

2. On your phone, go to Menu > Settings > Applications > Development > and make sure USB Debugging is checked ON.

II. Install the Android SDK

1. Follow our How To Setup ADB procedure just until you can see the device’s serial number at the end of step 6. Then come back to this procedure.

III. Root the Phone

1. Download the Rooting Files and extract them to the C: drive on your computer (like you did the AndroidSDK).

Backflip Rooting Files

2. Plug in your phone via USB cable and select Charge Only on the phone.

3. On your computer, open a command prompt by clicking on the Start menu then typing in cmd and hitting enter in the search box.

4. In the command prompt, type the following, with hitting enter at the end of each line:

cd\
cd c:\androidsdk\tools\
adb push c:\Superuser.apk /sdcard/Superuser.apk
adb push c:\su /sdcard/su
adb push c:\rageagainstthecage-arm5.bin /data/local/tmp/rageagainstthecage-arm5.bin
adb push c:\install-root.sh /data/local/tmp/install-root.sh
adb shell
cd /data/local/tmp
chmod 0755 rageagainstthecage-arm5.bin
chmod 0755 install-root.sh

5. Once you have done that, leave the phone plugged in and go to the Market and download the Free version of ConnectBot and install it.

6. Open the ConnectBot, select local in the dropdown menu, then type local into the field and hit enter. Then type the following in, on the phone, with hitting enter at the end of each line (leave the phone plugged in to the computer while you do this).

cd /data/local/tmp
./rageagainstthecage-arm5.bin

7. If it worked, you should see the following on the screen.

[+] Forked xxxx childs.    (xxxx will have an actual number in there)

If you do not, then close the ConnectBot and reopen it and try again.

8. If it worked, close the terminal by either typing exit and hitting enter or by hitting menu and clicking close.

9. Once it is closed, reopen ConnectBot.

10. You should now see a # symbol, if so continue. If not then start over from step 4 or go here for a tip from another reader.

11. Now, with the # symbol in ConnectBot on your phone, type the following with hitting enter at the end of the line:

/data/local/tmp/install-root.sh

You should see nothing pop up after you hit enter, that means it worked, you now should have root access and be able to open your App Drawer on the phone and see Superuser Permissions inside.

12. To load a custom ROM and other fun stuff, head from here to our How To Load a Custom ROM procedure.

Thanks Skrilax_CZ!
Thanks Sebastian Krahmer!

74 thoughts on “How To: Root the Motorola Backflip”

  1. my command prompt keeps giving me the message”adb” is not recognized as a internal command, or operable program or batch file……HELP ME PLEASE

  2. what if i doesnt work when you on the computer and is typing in
    adb push c:/rageagainstthecage-arm5.bin /data/local/tmp/rageagainstthecage-arm5.bin
    and i press enter and it says it cant find that file?

  3. hey whats up i just recently did the update on my backflip to 2.1 through motorola now when i do the root procedure i get forked XXXX childs and the # after running ./rageagainstthecage-arm5.bin in connect bot. but then everytime i try to get too su to load a new recovery img I get this (reloc_library[1244]: 8631 cannot locate ‘_ZNK7android6Parcel15setDataPositionEj ‘…CANNOT LINK EXECUTABLE) can some one please help I’m using the original Moto_MSM_root files do i need a new set i cant find anything else. thanks help would be great.

    1. Hi Jacobbroberts84…Did you figure out what went wrong and did  you gain the root access? i am stuck in the same place…I did root the device twice but still cant get the root access.i see the super user app in the appdrawer….some one help me please???

    1. Sorry again, but after I have to put in the rageagainstthecage part after I get the $, it tells me permission denied as well. Do I restart the entire process, or just restart the codes starting with the $?

  4. hi there i followed every step and i came to a holt when i type in adb devices it finds my phone but when i then type in adb push c:superuser it dont continue its not sending me on to the next step plzzz help

    1. Kingdrew101@gmail.com

      ok so i double checked and everything is in the right place i downloaded the rooting files then extraxt them to where the sdk files are too and everything is in place but like i said i still cant get the superuser to work

    2. Kingdrew101@gmail.com

      ok so i double checked and everything is in the right place i downloaded the rooting files then extraxt them to where the sdk files are too and everything is in place but like i said i still cant get the superuser to work

  5. well the rooting procedure obviously works! Except the fact that all i have is the superuser icon, and everything went as planned besides i cant access anything on superuser, being there is 2 updates that it says do not exist that it needs to proceed! the su/2.1.3/bin/signature.zip and the su binary

  6. well the rooting procedure obviously works! Except the fact that all i have is the superuser icon, and everything went as planned besides i cant access anything on superuser, being there is 2 updates that it says do not exist that it needs to proceed! the su/2.1.3/bin/signature.zip and the su binary

  7. well the rooting procedure obviously works! Except the fact that all i have is the superuser icon, and everything went as planned besides i cant access anything on superuser, being there is 2 updates that it says do not exist that it needs to proceed! the su/2.1.3/bin/signature.zip and the su binary

  8. ok i have a prob im not getting root priv doing everything fine and now when i try to run a program with needed root priv(rom manager for instance)it doesnt let me flash a recovery image and when i go into connectbot and type in su it ses reloc_library[1244]: 3646 cannot locate ‘_znk7android6parcel15setdatapositionEj’…cannot link executable

    so can someone please help that was alot of crap typing

    1. I’m having exactly the same problem. Sadly I dont expect help since this article is a bit on the dated side =(

      1. I’ll follow up to this since I found a working method.

        Z4mod, another tool from The Unlockr worked.http://androidforums.com/aria-all-things-root/289473-z4mod-app.html 

        It was a little bit of a struggle to get it my phone to let me install it. The trick was not trying to install it on the phone, but rather install it using ADB on the computerADB install z4root.1.3.0.apkThen simply jump on the phone and run it.BTW, DO NOT do this in the same boot session you tried rooting the phone in. Your phone needs to be freshly booted for the process to work.

  9. Hello. I’m having a problem with putting the rageagainstthecage.bin file through the CMD process. It keeps saying that there’s no such file or directory. Can you please give me some tips on how I can make this work?

  10. I’m extremely sorry, my mistake. I renamed the file with ‘.bin’, thinking that it needed it. I re-extracted the file and typed in the code and it worked. 🙂

    Sorry for the false alarm, and thank you for the rooting tutorial. ^_^

  11. Brandonjschoettle

    my phone always freezes when i go to exit connectbot
    i type exit and it says “conection lost”
    but it doesnt do anything from there.

  12. Brandonjschoettle

    my phone always freezes when i go to exit connectbot
    i type exit and it says “conection lost”
    but it doesnt do anything from there.

  13. For those having problems I’ll here are solutions. I ran into the same problems everyone else below ran into but I figured out what to do and am now going to explain.If you’re having a problem at:chmod 0755 rageagainstthecage-arm5.binYou need to open command prompt with administrator permission. Just right click cmd > run as administrator.If it freezes or it takes too long and you restart Connectbot at: adb connection will be resetSimply restart your phone. It worked for me, it’ll [hopefully] work for you.If you can’t understand or can’t get the adb part to work. All you’re really doing from the cmd window is putting files from your PC to the phone. So to deal with command prompt you can simply connect your phone select “USB Drive” not “Charge Only” and just view files when asked; you can also go to Start > Computer > your device. Your device being the phone of course. Once there you can just drag and drop the files “Su” and “Superuser.apk” onto the device. “Install-root.sh” and “rageagainstthecage-arm5.bin” go under data > local > tmp. I actually had to create the folders myself. From there you can now go back to cmd and continue from “adb shell” and so on. Hopefully this helps.

  14. Hey Unlockr, I am stuck right now on the “push superuser” step, it keeps saying there is no such file or directory. Any ideas as to what I did wrong?

  15. Note: If your connect bot force closes on you on step 8 (like mine did) DO NOT EXIT OUT OF IT. click okay to force close. click okay to send the developers a (i hope nasty) note. Connectbot should still be open after this. Just click on your local again and type the code line on step 11. worked for me.

  16. … adb push c: rageagainstthecage-arm5.bin / data/local/tmp/rageagainstthecage-arm5.bin
    Cannot stat c: rageagainstthecage-arm5.bin: No such file or directory

    what i do?

    1. I already did all the steps in the video “how to setup adb and also this video …
      I’m desperate hope to answer me = (

  17.  Thanks a ton….
    did root the phone and installed cyanogenmod on backflip…. Thanks dude… 
    you rock!!!

  18. im stuck on  chmod0755 rageagainstthecage-arm5.bin!! it says PERMISSION DENIED! 🙁 
    anyone run into the same issues?? please help!

  19. c:rageagainstthecage-arm5.bin is missing, you fucking asshole!  As usual, you armatures don’t check everything when you make these bullshit instructions.  Now what the fuck am I going to do?

    1. It took me a while to figure this out but rageagainstthecage-arm5.bin is
      not missing it is in the DL the issue is that most AV systems will pick
      it up as a virus and quarantine it. So check your antivirus quarantine before assuming the file is not in the DL

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